Thursday, March 28, 2013

I joined the Navy in 2012. I was excited about my choice, and ready to leave for basic training. But I was extremely nervous about bootcamp. My biggest fear was not being able to handle the physical aspet of it. You may be questioning wether or not you are ready. For advice on getting in shape for military boot camp. Check out my article: Get In Shape For Bootcamp then if you want to be mentally prepared, check out this article on Surviving Bootcamp

Being natural in the military can seem like a challenge at first. When I first joined the Navy, I feared that natural hair wouldn't be aceptable. But to my suprise many women in basic training and later on my base, were comfortable wearing their own natural hair. In my article on keeping natural hair in regs, I explore five basic options for wearing natural hair in the military.Keep Your Hair In Regs

Black natural hair is beautiful, but most of us grow up thinking that in order to fit in, we need to have straight hair. I started getting perms as a child, and continued the habit on into my adulthood. I saw my natural hair as nappy, messy and uncontrollable. Going natural seemed like a big step to me, one that I was not willing or ready to take. But as I learned a few facts about the benefits of black natural hair, compared to relaxed hair, I quickly came to the conclusion that natural hair was the way to go. In Feburary of 2012, I did the Big Chop and started on my natural hair journey. It was exciting and I loved experimenting with the many different things my hair could do. I found that, when taken care of properly, natural hair is beautiful and flexible. Not at all like I had expected.

I never considered relaxing my newly natural hair, until I joined the Navy. In the weeks leading up to shipping off to basic training in Great Lakes, I constantly stressed about my hair. My recruiter, being male, couldn't tell me much about wearing natural hair in the Navy and the best advice they could give me was to wear cornrows. I stressed that I would be unable to manage my hair through training, and that my afro would be unacceptable. Little did I know that natural hair is not only acceped in the military but it is also worn by many black women. Through basic training I wore my natural hair in cornrows, but once I got out, and got here to Pensacola I was pleasantly suprised to find how easy it was to wear natural hair in the military.

I know many women today are facing the same struggles that I have. There may be women thinking about joining the military, but who are afraid that their natural hair won't be accepted. Then there are those who are already in the military and may be considering going natural, but fear that it will be too difficult to do and stay in regulation. Whatever your situation may be, I invite you to follow along with my blogs and my natural hair journey in the military. In this journey I will document the many natural hairstyles I try out, my natural hair prodcut reviews, and plenty of how-to's and tutorials. I hope that this blog can help women like myself be natural in the military.